Deinonychus
Deinonychus is a genus of dromaeosaurid dinosaur that originated from Early Cretaceous North America. A close relative of Velociraptor, the Deinonychus bred by InGen can be distinguished by their head crest and distinctive red colouration. History Deinonychus was not planned to be a featured dinosaur in the original Jurassic Park on Isla Nublar, and no Deinonychus populations were reported by InGen on either Nublar or their Site B facility on Isla Sorna in 1996.http://www.dinosaurprotectiongroup.com/what-killed-the-gene-guard-act.html Dinosaur Protection Group - What Killed the Gene Guard Act However, a promotional art piece by Claire Dearing's Dinosaur Protection Group listing both extinct and extant species of dinosaur on Isla Nublar, listed Deinonychus as extinct, implying that the animal had previously been cloned for Jurassic World, only to fall back into extinction in the aftermath of the 2015 incident.Dinosaur Protection Group - Poster "Cruelty", available (http://www.dinosaurprotectiongroup.com/) Description |caption_align=center |image1 = DeinoAlpine.png |alt1 = Deino Alpine |caption1 = ALPINE |image2 = DeinoRainforest.png |alt2 = Deino Rainforest |caption2 = RAINFOREST |image3 = DeinoTaiga.png |alt3 = Deino Taiga |caption3 = TAIGA |image4 = DeinoVivid.png |alt4 = Deino Vivid |caption4 = VIVID }}A close relative of Velociraptor, Deinonychus has a rooster-like comb on its head as well as another fleshy ridge along its tail. It also has a short skull with large pronounced eye ridges. The base genome has reddish-grey skin with a dark band along its body and around its eye. Behaviour Much like Velociraptor, Deinonychus is a swift moving predator. Despite their similarities, they cannot coexist and will fight each other. In fact that genera seem extremely antagonistic towards one another and will hunt down the other even if food is available. Who is the victor in the battles can vary, though unmodified the Velociraptor has slightly higher base stats and may have an advantage. However Deinonychus can reap a higher benefit from some genome splices, meaning a heavily modified Deinonychus will be exponentially more dangerous than the base creature. Deinonychus are social animals and will rapidly lose comfurt and turn antagonistic if denied a pack. A bare minimum of 3 individuals per paddock can reduce rampages though a number of 4 to 5 is recommended. If given space and numbers, Deinonychus can be considered a more docile alternative to Dilophosaurus and Velociraptor. Palaeontology Deinonychus has been found in both the Cedar Mountain and Cloverly Formations. A relatively medium sized Dromaeosaur, it was also one of the earliest of its family yet showed advanced features that would be passed onto later therapods of the Coelurosauria line; such as a stiffened tail to keep the dinosaur steady while running and stereoscopic vision so it could gauge distances. Deinonychus was somewhere in the middle of the food chain. It lived in packs and preyed on small to medium sized herbivores such as Tenontosaurus, Aquilop''s and ''Zephryosaurus, ''but avoided the large sauropods such ''Astrodon. ''It may have also taken on armoured dinosaurs such as ''Sauropelta and Gastonia when in packs. It also lived alongside much larger predators, such as Utahraptor and the apex predator at the time, the large Acrocanthosaurus. Trivia * In real life, Deinonychus was 3 meters long and around 0.87 meters tall (hip height) and was covered with feathers. * There is currently no evidence for a comb or a fleshy tail ridge on Deinonychus. * The design for this dinosaur resembles the Green Basilisk (or Jesus Christ Lizard), especially in its Rainforest and Taiga colours. * Deinonychus had a longer skull with no obvious eye ridges in life. The look of the in-game genus is due to the developers using older reconstructions which had shorter and taller skulls to further differentiate it from ''Velociraptor'' which uses the modern look for its head design. * In the Jurassic Park novel canon, Deinonychus is considered to be synonymous with Velociraptor, and used as the basis of the raptor's larger-than-life size. * When Deinonychus was first seen, speculation pointed toward it being a Guanlong due to the "rooster comb" on its head. *'' '' was intended to be in Jurassic Park Operation Genesis, but was cut due to time constraints. Gallery DeinonychusMetricanthosaurusLake.png DeinoRaptor.png DeinonychusWebsite.png References Further reading External links Category:Carnivores Category:Dinosaurs Category:Raptors Category:Theropods Category:Saurischians Category:Early Cretaceous Category:North American Dinosaurs